https://doi.org/10.4081/monaldi.2023.2604
The impact of COVID-19 prevention measures on surgical wound infection rates post-cardiac surgery
Accepted: June 10, 2023
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on medical services. Several measures have been implemented to reduce the risk of viral transmission. In this paper, we assessed the impact of these measures on surgical wound infection rates in post-cardiac surgery patients. Hypothesis testing was used to compare post-cardiac operation infection rates between the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic being declared and the first 13 months of the pandemic. The infection rates in 969 patients with operations between 01/03/2019 and 29/02/2020 were compared to those of 925 patients with cardiac surgery between 01/03/2020 and 31/03/2021. Infection rates for various operative urgencies and infection types were analyzed. To compare infection rates, a two-tailed pooled z-test using the difference in infection proportions was performed. A 5% significance level was used, and only categories with at least 10 patients in both the pre-COVID and COVID populations were tested. For leg infections, only operations involving coronary artery bypass grafting were included. To ensure that any differences in outcomes were not due to differences in patient demographics resulting in unequal operative risks, Euroscore II values, a measure of cardiac operative risk, were compared between the pre-COVID and post-COVID cohorts. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to determine whether the distributions of Euroscore II values were likely to be drawn from the same population. A significance level of 5% was used. A total of 1901 patients (932 during the COVID-19 pandemic) were included in this study. There was a significant reduction in post-operative infections for all patients undergoing cardiac surgery, from 4.3% of patients before COVID-19 to 1.5% during the pandemic. During the pandemic, fewer elective and more urgent operations were performed. This study suggests a significant role for iatrogenic causes in wound infections before the pandemic. The implementation of COVID-19 prevention measures by healthcare providers can reduce surgical infection rates. As COVID-19-related restrictions have been eased, we suggest maintaining them for healthcare providers to reduce the incidence of surgical wound infections.
Ethics Approval
The study protocol was approved by the Audit, Assurance & Effectiveness Team of the University Hospitals of Plymouth (protocol no. CA_2021-22-120 dated 17/09/2021).How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Similar Articles
- P.E. Van Schil, J.M. Hendriks, M.G. De Maeseneer, P.R. Lauwers, Current management of spontaneous pneumothorax , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 63 No. 4 (2005): Pulmonary series
- Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Panagiotis Misthos, Maria Chorti, Vlasios Skopas, Alexandra Nakou, Napoleon Karagianidis, Achilleas Lioulias, Vasiliki Filaditaki, Unilateral pulmonary hypoplasia in an adult patient , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 88 No. 1 (2018)
- B.T. Uskul, R. Baran, F.E. Turan, O. Sogukpinar, F. Aksoy, H. Turker, Endoscopic removal of a chondromatous hamartoma by bronchoscopic electrosurgical snare and argon plasma coagulation , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 67 No. 4 (2007): Pulmonary series
- Matteo Petroncini, Leonardo Valentini, Piergiorgio Solli, Pietro Bertoglio, Giant lung bulla as a late-onset complication of mild SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 94 No. 3 (2024)
- Gaukhar Kurmanova, Almas Zhanaev, Akzharkyn Kaldybek, Balkiya Abdrakhmanova, Almira Akparova, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical features of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: an observational cross-sectional study , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Early Access
- Roberto Torchio, Alessandra Mazzucco, Marco Guglielmo, Roberto Giardino, Claudio Ciacco, Francesco Ardissone, Minute ventilation to carbon dioxide output (V’E/V’CO2 slope) is the strongest death predictor before larger lung resections , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 87 No. 3 (2017)
- Astha Guliani, Abhishek Tandon, Amartya Chakroborty, Prem Parkash Gupta, Predictors of post COVID complications in patients admitted with moderate to severe COVID symptoms: A single center, prospective, observational study , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 93 No. 2 (2023)
- Nian Patel, Robert Nicolae, Georgios Geropoulos, Pallabhi Mandal, Chrysanthos D. Christou, Marianna Gavala, Nikolaos Madouros, Michail Papapanou, Rahul Mogal, Dimitrios Giannis, Konstantinos S. Kechagias, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, Pneumomediastinum in the COVID-19 era: to drain or not to drain? , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 93 No. 2 (2023)
- Firas Aljanadi, Jonathan Strickland, Liana Montgomery, Mark Jones, Review of patients discharged post thoracic surgery with chest drain in situ and nurse-based follow-up clinic , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 94 No. 2 (2024)
- Sotirios D. Moraitis, Apostolos C. Agrafiotis, Leonidas Marinos, Ioannis Panagiotou, Timotheos Sakellaridis, Christos Tsakalakis, Elias Poulakidas, Mediastinal debulking for a T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma presenting with cardiac tamponade , Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease: Vol. 89 No. 2 (2019)
<< < 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 > >>
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
